DOOMED TO UNHAPPINESS IN LOVE.

DOOMED TO UNHAPPINESS IN LOVE. My brother and sister and their spouses had a wonderful trip to India last fall. I had a chance to ask them about it. My sister Mary and sister-in-law Margo said that one of the things that struck them was the want ads seeking spouses. Once a week there are pages devoted to these ads, often placed by parents and often placed by the highly educated (MBA’s were common). Mary and Margo both commented on the separate section in the want ads for some one who is a manglik. If one is a manglik, as explained in this article in Wikipedia, one has been born under an inauspicious sign for marriage–devastatingly inauspicious. Marriage will lead to divorce or even the early death of one spouse. A marriage between two mangliks may cancel out the bad luck. I can’t help wondering what the Romantic strain in Western literature would do with this belief. One can imagine doomed lovers tragically separated by the circumstances of their births and Byronic heroes prevented from marriage. What must it be like to grow up as a manglik?